Transbay Blog
Oakland
More Pleasant on Pleasant Valley
Most streets in North Oakland — lined as they are with trees, bungalows, and low-rise apartment buildings — have been built out on a comfortable and pleasant scale. But the shopping center located north and east of the intersection of Broadway and Pleasant Valley Avenue stands apart as, well, anything but pleasant. It is an … Continue reading
BART 2008 Surveys Tell the Story of Bay Area Regional Growth
BART survey data (2008). Top: rider home locations; bottom: rider employment locations. Courtesy of BART. BART has released its 2008 Station Profile Study, updating its last study from 1998. The data, which is collected from rider surveys, is BART’s version of the census. It reveals the demographic profile of BART riders, and it provides valuable … Continue reading
Open Thread and Early May News Roundup
I have been too busy lately to post regularly, but there is still plenty going on in the world of Bay Area planning and transit. My guess, and hope, is that people will still want to discuss the news, even though I am unable to pull enough time together to prepare full posts on these … Continue reading
In Uptown Grows … A Parking Lot?
When Westfield Centre opened in Downtown San Francisco in September 2006, no new parking structure was built to accommodate the approximately 25 million people that were expected to visit the mall each year. Instead, the basement level food court was physically connected to the concourse mezzanine of Powell Street Station, to emphasize that transit was … Continue reading
April 2009 BART Budget and Project Updates
UPDATE (24 April 2009): At its April 23 meeting, the BART board decided to postpone approval of the Oakland Airport Connector, but nonetheless approved the transfer of $50 million of seismic retrofit funding and $70 million of ARRA stimulus funding to the project. Meanwhile, the FEIR for eBART was approved 8-1, with Tom Radulovich dissenting. … Continue reading
WETA Plans Changes for East Bay Ferries
Alameda Harbor Bay; courtesy of etthekid. Prior to the construction in the 1930s of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Bay Area citizens crossed the Bay by using the once-thriving ferry service. The completion of those bridges and the rising popularity of the automobile greatly affected how people moved throughout the region. Since then, ferry … Continue reading
Regional Proposal for the Bay Area Transportation Stimulus
This Wednesday, February 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission expects to approve its proposed allocation of the federal stimulus money that will be made available to the Bay Area for transportation purposes. The stimulus package that was ultimately approved changed since our last post on this subject, and so MTC has accordingly made changes to its … Continue reading
21st Century Fox
Downtown Oakland has been in the news a lot in recent weeks, and not in altogether good ways. The Oscar Grant riots, although properly directed at BART and not the City of Oakland, certainly did not boost the city’s reputation. Meanwhile, a few Downtown projects (901 Jefferson, the Ellington, and 630 20th Street) have gone … Continue reading
On Walkability, Density, and Transit Villages
It’s official: according to the WalkScore.com rankings, San Francisco has been determined to be America’s most walkable city, as reported by the Chronicle. Our fair city’s score of 86 out of 100 just edged out New York’s 83, Boston’s 79, Chicago’s 76, and Philadelphia’s 74. The WalkScore algorithm does have some shortcomings (which the site … Continue reading
A Facelift for the College Avenue Safeway
The Safeway and 76 gas station, at the northeast corner of College and Claremont Avenues in Oakland, together occupy a site whose layout is entirely inappropriate for an urban setting, particularly for the intersection of two major avenues. The large parking lot, which fronts directly onto parts of both College and Claremont, is a (sub)urban … Continue reading
Subscribe
Links
If you are interested in California water issues, you may want to check out my other blog on that topic.
Copyright © 2007-2021 Transbay Blog.
Transbay Blog 